Genus of fishes
"Pike (fish)" redirects here. For other fishes known by this name, see
Pike
.
Esox
is a
genus
of
freshwater fish
commonly known as
pike
or
pickerel
. It is the type genus of the
family
Esocidae
. The
type species
of the genus is
Esox lucius
, the
northern pike
.
Esox
have a fossil record extending back to the
Paleocene
. Modern large pike species are native to the
Palearctic
and
Nearctic realms
, ranging across
Northern America
and from
Western Europe
to
Siberia
in
North Asia
.
Pikes have the elongated,
torpedo
-like shape typical of
predatory fishes
, with sharply pointed heads and sharp teeth. Their coloration is typically grey-green with a mottled or spotted appearance with stripes along their backs, providing
camouflage
among underwater weeds, and each individual pike marking patterns are unique like fingerprints. Pikes can grow to a maximum recorded length of 1.83 m (6 ft), reaching a maximum recorded weight of 67lb 8oz.
[
citation needed
]
Etymology
[
edit
]
The generic name
Esox
(pike fish) derives from the
Greek
?σοξ (
ee-soks
, a large fish) and appears to be
cognate
with
Celtic
,
Welsh
eog
and
Irish Gaelic
iasc
(fish), as well as alpine Gaulic
*esosk
which is consistent with the original
indoeuropean
root for the common word for fish,
*pei(k)sk
.
Pliny
uses the
Latin
form
Esox
in reference to a large fish in the
Rhine
normally identified with
Salmonidae
(
lax
or salmon).
Carolus Linnæus
attributes
Esox
to the pike fish which is of similar form and appearance but taxonomically different from the salmon forms, whereas the first mention of
Esox
as a marine animal appears in the writings of
Hesychius
.
The
English
common name "pike" is an apparent shortening of "pike-fish", in reference to its pointed head, as the
Old English
word
pic
originally referring to a
pickaxe
. The
plural
of pike is also pike.
[1]
[2]
A
Northern English
and
Lowland Scots
name for the pike,
ged
, similarly derives from
Old Norse
gaddr
(spike) (cf. the modern
Swedish
name for the pike,
gadda
, the Danish "gedde", the Norwegian "gjedde" and
Scottish Gaelic
:
geadais
). The
Dutch
name for the pike (
snoek
) has been given to a wide variety of fish reminding sailors of the pike (see snoek,
snook
).
The English "pike" originally referred specifically to the adult fish, the diminutive form "
pickerel
" (now used to name some of the smaller pike species, e.g.
E. americanus
and
E. niger
) referring to the young. The
walleye
(
Sander vitreus
) is sometimes called a pickerel, but it is unrelated to the pike, being a member of the perch family (
Percidae
). Pike are not to be confused with the unrelated
pikeminnows
of genus
Ptychocheilus
(family
Cyprinidae
) or
pikeperch
(
Sander lucioperca
) which is more akin to walleye than to pike. Pike are also called "jackfish" in North America and informally "slough shark" in Western Canada.
Species
[
edit
]
Currently, seven recognized species are placed in this genus:
Image
|
Scientific name
|
Common Name
|
Subspecies
|
Distribution
|
|
Esox aquitanicus
Denys
,
Dettai
,
Persat
,
Hautecœur
&
Keith
, 2014
|
Aquitanian
pike
[3]
|
|
Charente
to the
Adour
drainages in southwestern
France
|
|
Esox americanus
J. F. Gmelin
, 1789
|
American pickerel
|
|
the
St. Lawrence
drainage in
Quebec
, down to the
Gulf Coast
from
Mississippi
to
Florida
; the
Great Lakes Basin
from
Ontario
to
Michigan
, down to the western Gulf Coast, from
East Texas
to Mississippi.
|
|
Esox cisalpinus
Bianco
&
Delmastro
, 2011
|
Southern pike
[4]
|
|
central
and
northern Italy
, southeastern France and
Switzerland
, and it might also occur in
western Balkans
.
|
|
Esox lucius
Linnaeus
,
1758
|
Northern pike
|
|
Britain
,
Ireland
,
northern Europe
, most of
Canada
, and most parts of the
United States
|
|
Esox masquinongy
Mitchill
, 1824
|
Muskellunge
|
- Esox masquinongy masquinongy
(Great Lakes muskellunge or Spotted muskellunge )
- Esox masquinongy ohioensis
(Chautauqua muskellunge or Barred muskellunge)
- Esox masquinongy immaculatus
(Clear muskellunge)
|
mesotrophic lakes and large rivers from northern Michigan, northern
Wisconsin
, and northern
Minnesota
through the Great Lakes region, north into Canada
|
|
Esox niger
Lesueur
, 1818
|
Chain pickerel
|
|
southern Canada to Florida, and west to Texas. On the
Atlantic Northeast
in
Maine
,
New Hampshire
,
New Brunswick
and
Nova Scotia
|
|
Esox reichertii
Dybowski
, 1869
|
Amur pike
|
|
the
Amur River
system in
Northeast Asia
|
Hybrids
between
Esox masquinongy
and
Esox lucius
are well-known and referred to as the
tiger muskellunge
.
Fossil species
[
edit
]
The oldest fossil species of
Esox
is
Esox tiemani
, from the late
Paleocene
aged
Paskapoo Formation
of Canada, which differs little from modern species.
[5]
Other fossil species include
Esox kronneri
, from the
Eocene
of the
Green River formation
,
[6]
and
Esox nogaicus
, is known from the
Pleistocene
of
Ukraine
, and species from the
Miocene
(
Esox sibiricus
) and
Pliocene
(
Esox moldavicus
) deposits from Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Moldavia.
[7]
Two additional fossil species, both from the Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, are placed in their own genera:
Estesesox foxi
[8]
(
Santonian
to
Campanian
[9]
), and
Oldmanesox canadensis
[8]
[6]
(Campanian to
Maastrichtian
[10]
).
Diet
[
edit
]
Pike feed on a wide range of food sources, predominantly smaller
shoal fish
. Pike are also cannibalistic, sometimes preying upon smaller members of their own species. This can be seen clearly in the
northern pike
.
They will also prey on
insects
and
amphibians
such as
newts
or
frogs
in times when their usual food is scarce, and occasionally on small
mammals
like
moles
or
mice
when caught water-borne. Small birds such as
ducklings
may become a target for hungry pike. Pike are also known to prey on swimming
snakes
.
They are, however, undeserving of their reputation for being overly vicious predators. There have been some incidents of pike "attacks" on people.
[11]
Pike's further reputation as a
pest
seems to lie predominantly amongst a small handful of anglers and fishery managers who think that invasive species of
pike are a threat to native rough fish and also other sport fish.
Angling and handling methods
[
edit
]
Effective methods for catching this hard-fighting fish include dead baits, live baits, and lure fishing. Pike can easily be damaged when handled since they are not as robust as their reputation would suggest and have a very sensitive slime coat. Since pike have numerous sharp teeth it is wise to take extreme care when unhooking them. The use of a wet leather
gauntlet
and
surgical forceps
to remove hooks is highly recommended on safety grounds.
If practicing catch and release fishing, care for the pike should be the pike angler's utmost concern. The formerly recommended practice of grasping a pike by its eye sockets (misinterpreted as "its eyes") resulted in numerous released pike that quickly died from the inability to see prey any longer. The current recommended method of grasping pike is to close the hand firmly over the
gill covers
, and to make the period of handling as short as possible before release. Grabbing a pike by the gill covers is not feasible when a pike is very big, but it is easy to handle a pike by inserting the fingers at the bottom of the gill opening and grabbing the lower jaw. Big pike should also be supported at the belly. When a pike is held this way it is also easier to keep the mouth open to remove a hook. Some anglers now use special grips to grab the pike's front lower jaw, which can add to the safety of an angler because of the danger imposed by the hooks of the lure or tackle and the pike's teeth. However, these can cause serious damage to a pike's lower jaw. The Pike Anglers Club was formed in 1977 to campaign for the preservation of pike and the sport of pike fishing.
Pike are susceptible to
gut hooking
when fished for with natural bait. Upon taking the bait, the pike will hold it for a short time in its mouth as it moves off. The pike will then, usually, turn the bait in its mouth, so that it sits in alignment with its throat to ease swallowing. It is recommended that when pike fishing the process is not allowed to go this far and a strike is recommended as soon as a bite is indicated. Otherwise, what is known as
gut hooking
will result, which will normally kill or seriously injure the fish. Dutch research shows that cutting the line immediately when the fish is gut hooked will still give low mortality (14%). The hooks in the gut or stomach were either encapsulated or removed from the body.
[12]
Placing hooks near the rear of the bait reduces the risk of deep hooking.
[13]
To minimize injury from gut hooking the hook should be taken out from the gills where you will insert your pliers or forceps. Grab as close to the base of the hook as you can and rotate the eye of the hook toward the bottom of the fish's mouth and be removed carefully as to not rehook the fish.
Other methods of catching and handling pike that are now frowned upon are the
gaff
and the gag. The gaff is a metal hook on the end of a pole used to hook through the fish's body in place of a more humane landing net. A gag is a device for holding open the pike's mouth whilst unhooking. These are now illegal in Scotland, as they put a huge amount of pressure on a pike's jaw, thus causing irreparable damage.
Cuisine
[
edit
]
The taste of pike and pickerel is highly esteemed, but the "multitude of long, fine, forked bones" are problematic.
[14]
[15]
The dish of
quenelles de brochet
(pike dumplings), which puts the meat through a sieve, was invented to deal with this.
[16]
Indeed,
Escoffier
believed, falsely, that
quenelles
had completely displaced the whole fish from the menu.
[14]
Submarines and tanks
[
edit
]
Two
United States Navy
submarines
have been named
Pike
?
SS-6
of 1903 and
SS-173
of 1935 ? and three ?
SS-22
of 1912,
SS-177
of 1936, and
SS-524
of 1944 ? named
Pickerel
. In addition, the
Soviet
submarines known to
NATO
as the
Victor III class
and
Akula class
are called the
Shchuka
(Щука, "pike") class in
Russian
. The Soviet
Iosif Stalin tank (IS-3)
was also nicknamed
Shchuka
, in reference to its sharply pointed hull front.
Cultural significance
[
edit
]
Mythology
[
edit
]
Russian mythology holds that the pike is one of several forms assumed by evil water spirits called
vodyanoy
, and a ravenous mythical pike is traditionally blamed for decimating the fish population in the
Sheksna River
. Russian fairy tales, on the other hand, also tell about an old wise pike that can fulfil wishes of the one who catches it, if its catcher releases it back into its habitat.
[17]
In the Finnish
Kalevala
,
Vainamoinen
creates a
kantele
(string instrument) from the jawbone of a pike.
Heraldry
[
edit
]
In
heraldry
, the pike is called a
lucy
(English heraldry) or a
ged
(Scottish heraldry).
[1]
It is usually
blazoned
either
naiant
(swimming),
embowed
(bowed) or
hauriant
(jumping), though pairs of lucies may appear
addorsed
(back to back), as in the arms of the
Finnish
town of
Uusikaupunki
(
Argent, two lucies addorsed azure
).
[
citation needed
]
Literature
[
edit
]
In
George R. R. Martin
's
A Song of Ice and Fire
series of
epic fantasy
novels, both the
seat
and the
highborn bastards
of the
Iron Islands
are named "Pyke", likely inspired by the pike fish since the islands are inhabited by
Viking
-like
seafaring
warriors who frequent
pirate
ships and
raid
the coastal regions.
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909).
A Complete Guide to Heraldry
. London: T.C. & E.C. Jack. p. 255.
LCCN
09023803
.
- ^
Woodward, John (1892).
A treatise on heraldry, British and foreign
. Edinburgh: W. & A.K. Johnston. p. 694.
LCCN
02020303
. Archived from
the original
on 2 November 2007
. Retrieved
29 May
2009
.
- ^
Denys, Gael Pierre Julien; Dettai, Agnes; Persat, Henri; Hautecœur, Melyne; Keith, Philippe (2014).
"Morphological and Molecular Evidence of Three Species of Pikes
Esox
spp. (Actinopterygii, Esocidae) in France, including the Description of A New Species"
.
Comptes Rendus Biologies
.
337
(9): 521?34.
doi
:
10.1016/j.crvi.2014.07.002
.
PMID
25242691
.
- ^
Lucentini, Puletti, Ricciolini, Gigliarelli, Fontaneto, Lanfaloni, Bilo, Natali, Panara (2011).
Molecular and Phenotypic Evidence of a New Species of Genus Esox (Esocidae, Esociformes, Actinopterygii): The Southern Pike, Esox flaviae.
PLoS ONE 6(12): e25218.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0025218
- ^
Sinha, Sinjini; Brinkman, Don B; Murray, Alison M. (14 December 2019).
"A morphological study of vertebral centra in extant species of pike, Esox (Teleostei: Esociformes)"
.
Vertebrate Anatomy Morphology Palaeontology
.
7
: 111?128.
doi
:
10.18435/vamp29357
.
ISSN
2292-1389
.
S2CID
213203684
.
- ^
a
b
Grande, L. (1999). "The First
Esox
(Esocidae: Teleostei) from the Eocene Green River Formation, and a Brief Review of Esocid Fishes".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
.
19
(2): 271?292.
Bibcode
:
1999JVPal..19..271G
.
doi
:
10.1080/02724634.1999.10011141
.
- ^
Kovalchuk, Oleksandr M.; Wilson, Mark V.H.; Grande, Terry (2017).
"A review of Neogene and Quaternary pikes of southeastern Europe and a new species from the early Pleistocene of Nogaisk, Ukraine"
.
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
.
62
.
doi
:
10.4202/app.00311.2016
.
- ^
a
b
Wilson, Brinkman & Neuman, 1992
- ^
"Fossilworks:
Estesesox
"
.
- ^
"Fossilworks:
Oldmanesox
"
.
- ^
"Water skier bitten by giant pike"
.
The Guardian
. 31 August 1999
. Retrieved
26 July
2023
.
- ^
"Archived copy"
(PDF)
. Archived from
the original
(PDF)
on 27 March 2009
. Retrieved
7 February
2009
.
{{
cite web
}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link
)
- ^
"Coping with Deep Hooked Pike | Pike Anglers Club of Great Britain"
. Archived from
the original
on 13 September 2013
. Retrieved
10 October
2013
.
- ^
a
b
Waverley Root,
Food
, 1996, p. 353
- ^
'Piscator', "Pike Fishing",
The Sportsman
(Second Series),
2
:3:
139
(March 1840)
- ^
Marthe Daudet, Shirley King, translator and adaptor,
Pampille's Table: Recipes and Writings from the French Countryside from Marthe Daudet's
Les Bons Plats de France
[1934]
,
p. 153
- ^
"Emelya the Simpleton", russian folklore fairy tale.
At the Pike's Behest
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Esox
.